“WE know them - we grow them”, are the words on the sign at Allan Waldon’s Turramurra butcher shop in northern Sydney.
He was producing his lamb and beef off the farm for his shops, a paddock-to-plate style business that he believed was needed to fill a “real” retail story.
In years past he began with cattle and invested in Murray Greys, which he still has today, grazing and finishing on “Borambil”, Mendooran, and another property near Carcoar.
However, to fulfill his meat palate he needed to breed sheep and after a small flurry with some White Dorpers he purchased from a neighbour, Mr Waldon thought he had the lot.
Yet, it was not until he visited the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days about six years ago that the “whole” scenario became complete.
“I was walking around the site just looking and enjoying the day out, and stopped at the White Dorper display and began talking to stud breeder, Allan Peters.
“He had a couple of nice rams and I was on the lookout for a couple, and he asked was that all I needed.
“It turned out he was selling his Top Deck stud, so I went home did some homework and phoned him that night and bought the entire flock.”
The flock now totals 450 sheep, including 300 ewes. Mr Waldon said he had the flock re-classed last year and now runs a stud flock of 80 to 100 Top Deck ewes, with the remainder of his flock unregistered and run as commercial sheep.
Top Deck White Dorper lambs entered in the 2014-15 Sydney Royal Show fine food competition won a gold medal for the best gourmet lamb product, and then a silver medal the following year.
“White Dorpers are just little powerhouses, they are just money-making machines,” he said. “At 22 weeks you can kill a 21kg or 22kg lamb finished, they do so well.”
He said Dorpers “just smash” the 19kg to 22kg domestic trade lamb market. “They hit the spot on that market.”
Born and raised on a flower market garden in Belrose, Mr Waldon began his butchering career in 1974 and moved to Mudgee in the late 1970s, butchering there for seven years.
He later bought a butcher shop at Manly and then moved to again to the edge of Turramurra and Wahroonga in the mid-1990s.
At that time the food industry was changing, butchers were dropping out of the industry “like flies”, but food was becoming “really exciting”, Mr Waldon said.
A visit to France enlightened him to how much better in retail food “we could do things in Australia”, he said.
“We have the best food in the world, but we don’t market it as well as other countries.
